Australian Broker TV

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Smartmoves towards a better broker workspace

On this week's Australian Broker we visited Smartmove to talk about the thought processes behind their new space which aims to improve broker comfort and boost productivity.

Video transcript below:

Reporter: As more and more small brokerages find their feet, they outgrow their offices and are faced with an array of decisions about their new workspace. What exactly is the best environment for brokers to boost their productivity? Australia Broker visited Smartmove to find out more about their thought processes and creative collaborations behind their new space.

Darren Little, General Manager, Smartmove
Darren Little: What the team have done is, we have just moved into a fantastic new and what I think is one of the state of art broker offices in Australia.

David Brell, Managing Director, Smartmove
David Brell: We wanted to create a much better, happier working environment for our staff, who are our most important asset and the people we care so much about. It’s a working home, something that the team can come to work and feel proud about, feel happy, happy with and enjoy their day, we spend so much time at work and it does lead to greater productivity, it leads to you know a happier outcome for customers. [The tips] the old office versus the new office, the things that we’ve learnt is, the noise, the acoustics is very important. The guys, the team need space, space to work, so they feel comfortable, but also you know there is a lot of talk about hot desking, whether you hot desk or whether you don’t and in turn talking to the team. The feedback is that they don’t want to move around every second day. It creates a sort of a cold feel. However in saying that we have them set up with facilities that make them flexible like laptops on workstations where they can have the ability to move around if they choose to. So it does give you the best of both worlds. We do have a breakaway area, where there is funky furniture, where a lender comes to talk to us, we can all venture there and talk casually, but also professionally and working together.

Simon Orbell, Operations Director, Smartmove
Simon Orbell: We have just moved into our new office space and we are really enjoying the new environment. We have got some lovely outdoor areas.

David Brell: We have a 100 metre balcony which is a huge amount of space where the team can walk outside, the ability to take a break and have some fresh air and have a conversation with clients or with each other. That’s probably one of the biggest positives. The facilities are here to make life easier and yeah allow us to do better in business.

Darren Little: We can, yeah from a team point of view, it’s just a very good environment for new brokers as well as the existing team to work. And so one of the things you know for us to get that sustainable growth is, we are looking to bring more people in and we’ve got this new facility that’s just truly outstanding for our broker team to work in.